So I misunderstood how episodes work

[Aetherwing]

Hi! My name is Emily and I make the comic, Aetherwing.

I recently only joined a couple of days ago, so I'm still figuring out how this website works. I was a bit confused about episodes, being a comic that updates biweekly. At first I thought, 'oh hey, this is neat, it's all like one scrolling image' but then I realized that that's awkward for readers and that other lengthy comics do one page per episode, and uploading new pages to the chapter doesn't notify readers the way I want to. I've uploaded nearly 3 issues this way, because that's what I had when I signed up.

So my questions are, should I go back and change what I have to one page per episode? Would this overload my subscribers? Or should I just keep what I have and do one page per episode from now on?

Any advice would be appreciated! Thanks!

[thomassayle]

maybe page by page, then when a chapter is done compile it into one, or just not update bi weekly and post a whole chapter at once.

[joannekwan]

Speaking as a reader, I can tolerate at most 8 pages per episode. I'm fine with 1 page per episode too. It's just when you have a looong episode, the scrolling gets tiresome, and if you have to close the tab, Tapastic won't remember where you are in that episode so you have to scroll back to where you left off. Also, each time you add an episode, your comic will appear in the Fresh section, giving you more exposure.

[joannekwan]

Also, forgot to add— Since you have a lot of material to work with, you can probably organize them into 5 or so pages each episode, nice digestible chunks. Then once you're caught up, maybe 2 pages in one episode once a week?

[Aetherwing]

Okay that makes sense, I'm new to this site, and comic hosting sites for that matter, and didn't quite understand how things worked. I read 'episode' as 'chapter.' My concern now is, would going back and breaking things up to make it easier to read overload my subscribers with updates?

[joannekwan]

I think what you can do is go back, remove the page files from one episode, and reshuffle them around that way. For example, say for episode one, you have pages 1-20, you can remove 6-20, and then upload 6-10 to episode two, and back track that way, and make sure you click "don't send" when Tap asks you if you want to notify subscribers about the episode update.

[AnnaLandin]

@Aetherwing You can do it in stages! You don't have to re-organise everything in one day - just collapse the parts down into manageable chunks bit by bit. Do some of it today, and a little more tomorrow, etc. That way, you can get stuff down to readable chunks without overloading your subscribers - OR you can announce it on your wall (be sure to click the little bell-symbol so that it notifies your subscribers) and just tell them that "Hey, I'm going to do this thing, sorry in advance for flooding you with notifications".

People are pretty nice about this sort of thing.

[Aetherwing]

Yeah I was leaning towards just reorganizing everything into one-page-per-episode sections so that the comic could update like it normally would an not be weird, and so my readers can get notified whenever there is a new page. I would have warned ahead of time if that was what I decided to do, but I was worried about how it would be received. But since people around here tend to be pretty nice/understanding, I think that's what I'm going to do. Thanks for the advice!

[Kura]

I've you've already uploaded like that, you can leave what you have uploaded as is and just start uploading the rest as single page episodes (unless everything need to be uploaded in exactly the same way like me x.x) Then you don't have to worry about overloading the readers you currently have with update notifications to pages they already read. There's a few series that start out like that here so I don't think it would be a problem. (most likely had the same issue as you)

Plus it meets the requirements to getting spotlight, as they don't do single page features. (the first 'episode' being a complete scene or something along those lines)

Edit: Personally as a reader I like the page by page episodes, they just flick through the phone so nice, and I can vamos at any point and come back later without having to scroll around to find my place.

[Aetherwing]

Normally I would do what you're suggesting but I'm slightly concerned at the length of the episodes. Currently they are in 23 page chunks and this is hard to read by mobile/site standards and I'm worried it's turning off potential readers. Plus I would like it if everything was presented in a similar way, if possible.

[Kura]

Than I don't see anything wrong with uploading it page by page or small batches if you don't mind putting the effort into it. Personally I haven't had any issues when the comics I follow have changed their format in such a way (and there have been a few) the reader base here is pretty understanding.

[Aetherwing]

That's really good to know! Thanks for the help =)

[eschaefges]

I just wanted to second the great advice here - but also say that yeah, as a reader, I cannot usually take more than 5-7 pages per episode - i often need Real Life breaks and dislike having to find my place. Episodes can work like built-in bookmarks with some reorganization!

[Aetherwing]

Just wanted to let everyone know, I wound up reformatting to a pager-per-episode format. It just makes more sense with the way the comic updates. I've already received a positive comment about it.

Thanks so much for the advice you guys! It was a big help <3

[apocryphagraphics]

I might be in the minority, but single page episodes drive me nuts. I'd far rather scroll smoothly from page to page than have ads/comments between every page. If I'm not a subscriber I usually stop after a few pages.